SU PHI2301 Discussions Latest 2021 June (Full)

PHI2301 Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1 Discussion

What makes a life worth living?

What makes your life worth living? In 1-2 pages, explain your idea of what makes life meaningful and compare/contrast your view with Socrates’ idea that philosophy makes life worth living. Your discussion post should address the following:

Your own ideas about what makes life worth living

The difference between philosophy and sophistry

Socrates’s account of the philosophical life

PHI2301 Introduction to Philosophy

Week 2 Discussion

Are you an Avocado or An Artichoke?

The purpose of this discussion assignment is to reflect upon your understanding of the two main philosophical approaches to the self. After completing your readings, write a 1-2 page paper comparing and contrasting the avocado/modernist idea of the self with the artichoke/postmodern view.

As you develop your response, you might find some of the following questions to be relevant:

What is the avocado idea of the self? What is your understanding of Plato and Aristotle’s belief that reason is the core essence of human beings?

What is the artichoke idea of the self? What is your understanding of the existential idea that our existence determines our essence?

What do you make of the concern that the avocado idea of the self values reason over emotion? What are the implications of this view for women?

Are you an avocado or an artichoke? Or do you find the non-Western views of the self to be more compelling?

PHI2301 Introduction to Philosophy

Week 3 Discussion

What is True and How Do We Know?

The purpose of this discussion assignment is to reflect upon your understanding of epistemology, i.e., the philosophical approach to knowledge and truth. In 1-2 pages, address the following:

Identify a belief you think is true.

Identify and explain a philosophical account of truth from the readings that might help support your belief. For example, say the belief is that you are awake right now. Is this something you would prove using empirical evidence? If so, discuss at least one version of empiricism and the correspondence theory of truth. If the belief is one that refers to a paradigm (math, for example), discuss Cartesian rationalism and the coherence theory of truth. If it is one that does not admit of empirical or logical warrantability, discuss Deconstruction and/or the Pragmatic and Ewe Creativity approaches to truth.

PHI2301 Introduction to Philosophy

Week 4 Discussion

The purpose of this discussion assignment is to reflect upon your belief about how our society should be structured to achieve justice. In 1-2 pages, write a letter to one of your elected officials in which you identify an unjust circumstance in your community and advise your representative as to how it might be remedied. Include the following in your letter:

Identify and explain the injustice in your community.

Discuss your proposed solution.

Explain at least one social philosophy from Chapter 9 in the textbook that supports your solution.

PHI2301 Introduction to Philosophy

Week 5 Discussion

The purpose of this discussion assignment is to reflect upon your belief about how our government should be structured to achieve justice. In 1-2 pages, address the following:

Identify an ethical dilemma you or someone you know has faced.

Identify and explain the ethical philosophy from the reading that you think either should have or did inform how you resolved the dilemma. You can choose utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, care ethics, Buddhist ethics, African ethics, or existential ethics.

Identify and explain an ethical theory that would take a different approach.